The impact of social media on industries across the world has been significant. Now, more than ever, businesses must evolve with the changing times and take advantage of the opportunities presented by social media.

What is viral content? The number of times an article, video, or other type of content is shared on social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, averaged over a 60 day period, is known as virality.

Viral content comes in many different forms, but these days it usually has one of three key elements:

• An entertaining quality
• An informative quality
• A humorous quality

The above list details the kinds of things that might go viral. When a piece of content enters the cultural conversation as something people are talking about, it has usually gone viral. In other words, something that is fun to watch and share is likely to go viral.

If you’re looking to create viral content, take inspiration from the above list or these 10 simple tips below.

1. Keep it brief.

There is a reason why the first rule of thumb for a comedian is “never talk longer than 10 minutes”: People want to stay excited about what they are watching or listening to. In order to retain audience interest, keep your hooks in (and attention on) your audience throughout the whole piece. This keeps it short and sweet.

If you are posting a video, keep in mind that people are busy. They have a lot of content to watch and only so much time to do it in. When deciding how long to keep your videos, you have to ask yourself: How much do I want to tell the viewer?

2. Cultivate a community.

A common mistake a lot of people make when trying to create viral content is trying to do it alone. Although it is entirely possible to have a successful channel or blog, the key to viral content is by connecting with and engaging with an audience. This involves creating a space for your audience to engage with you, express opinions about your content, and hopefully, share your content with their own audiences. These are known as the “three Vs. of viral content: Variety, Volume, and Velocity.

The variety of content you offer is crucial in establishing yourself as a source people can turn to. Offering multiple perspectives and engaging with various communities will help you establish your channel as a place people can come back to time and time again to find new content. When you establish yourself as an authoritative source in your industry, with a wide network of loyal followers, this will give you a major leg up on the competition.

The volume of content you produce is also vital. If you have a lot of content, then you are almost certainly going to reach a lot of people. Having a lot of content means you can stand out even among content creators with larger followings. This is because there will always be people searching for content on a specific topic, and you can bet there will be many of them. So, if you want your content to go viral, have a lot of it!

Velocity is all about how fast you can produce content and how often you can post. If you want your content to go viral, then you have to be constantly producing content and constantly sharing it on social media. The more you do and the more successful you are, the more you can afford to offer more content, faster. This is also why you should be posting multiple times per day, if not multiple times per hour.

You might be wondering how you can be sure people are actually reading your content. One way is to track the sources of your traffic. You can do this using website tools like Google Analytics. Another way is to look at your social media analytics tool (Hootsuite, for example). Both of these programs will flag the sources of your traffic. For example, if someone clicks on an image in your post and then visits another website or blog that has more content on the same topic, that is considered a “bump” in the newswhip world. When someone gives your content “bump” (ie, pushes it to the top of their Twitter feed) that is also considered a measure of success. In short, everything you put out there will have an effect, and you need to be measuring the results of all your efforts.

3. Test different social media platforms.

This is important whether you are looking to go viral or not. You cannot just focus on one platform; you have to try them all. This way, you will find the ones that work best for your content and can help you get the most out of your content. When it comes to viral content, it is essential to get the most out of every single platform.

You should also remember that the rules and guidelines of each differ. For example, on TikTok, videos can only be between 15 seconds and two minutes. On Twitter, videos can be between 60 seconds and three minutes. Some allow you to use images in your posts, while others do not. When it comes to establishing your authority in your industry, it is crucial to establish the rules and regulations of each platform.

4. Engage with your audience.

When you have a large following on a social media platform, you can take advantage of the fact that people want to hear what you have to say. If you want to go viral, start a conversation with your audience. Respond to comments, like, and share content that is relevant to your followers. This could involve sharing news stories, responding to questions, or starting a discussion about a topic that is already popular amongst your audience.

If you want to create a conversation, you have to participate in it. Simply ‘liking’ or ‘sharing’ content won’t cut it; you need to engage with your audience, even if it’s just to say thank you for sharing my content. People want to feel like their opinion is being valued, even if it’s just by someone they follow on Twitter. They want to feel like their opinion matters. So, if you want to have a successful channel or blog, start a conversation with your audience and encourage them to engage with you. This is how you make content go viral.

5. Measure the results.

You cannot just wake up one day and decide “today I am going to go viral”. It takes time to see the results of your efforts (if any). To figure out how much success you have achieved with your channel, you first need to measure it. You can do this using either of the two tools mentioned above (GA for SEO or SM for SEO).

The first step is to identify which social media platforms you are using and which ones you should avoid. Once you have that down, you can begin to measure the results of your efforts. Start by looking at the volume of views your content has accumulated on the different platforms. This will give you a general idea of the success of your efforts. If you’re not sure where to start, begin with Google Analytics and take it step by step.

6. Find your niche.

When you have established yourself on the different social media platforms, start looking for the ones that are most suitable for your niche. This is important because not all social media platforms are created equal. Some are better suited for certain types of content, some are designed for communities, and some are simply meant to be used for sharing links or advertising.

It is important to find a platform that is best suited for your niche. Use your analytics tool to find the ones that get the most engagement. If you are curious as to what type of content performs well on a certain platform, take a look at the top-performing posts in your analysis. This will give you a good idea of what other businesses in your niche are doing and what types of content perform well for them. You can then decide whether or not this is the right direction for you.

7. Be consistent.

This tip may seem obvious, but it is crucial to have consistency when trying to go viral. If you want to keep your audience, you need to keep producing good content. When you have good content, people will come back for more. This will help you establish yourself as a reliable resource, even if you do not yet have a large audience.

Consistency does not necessarily mean you have to produce a piece of content every week. It means you need to follow a regular schedule, whether it be weekly, monthly, or quarterly. People need to know when to expect your content and they need to know it will always be good. If you want to build an audience, then you have to put out consistent content often enough for people to start noticing you and engaging with you.